the-internet-page

I both equally love and hate the Internet and am starting to use it for more projects.    The Internet gives something that traditional media doesn’t.  It is both more fleeting but also more permanent.  It is full of noise but also a place of quiet contemplation.  It is somewhere where it is easy to get lost, but it equally allows the possibility of connecting with vastly different groups of people from all over the world.

WARPixelated Day Out

 

 

 

 

 

THE AUTISM PROJECT      SOCIAL NETWORKS

 

THE AUTISM PROJECT

Computers are my Friends

Autism is a much misunderstood disability; those who have it are either seen as brilliant Savants, such as Rainman, who incidentally did not have Autism but the much rarer Savant Syndrome, or as rocking, mutes who are unable to communicate with others in any meaningful way.  Recently there has been another view of the higher functioning autistic, that of deranged mass killer.  This mistaken view has been popularised not only by ill thought out news items by teams desperate to fill space on rolling news; but also by popular film and fiction.  In the 2011 adaptation of  We Need To Talk About Kevin, Tilda Swinton believes that her young son is autistic due to his strange behaviour, mutism and toilet training issues.  Now although he is judged not to be by the specialists she takes him to, the film does not, in my mind, resolve this suitably.  As a parent of a child with autism, one who talks, but can be violent, is also loving and hateful to me, and who still has dressing and toileting issues I find this to be a film that is insidious in its judgement of autism.  You could of course argue that Kevin is not autistic and the film demonstrates this. but the seed is already planted in the viewer.  I believe it is due to appearances like this is the media that people’s immediate reactions to heinous crimes by individuals is to postulate the notion that they are autistic ( Anders Behring Breivik was deemed to have Aspergers by the press though this was incorrect and reporting of the Sandy hook Massacre).  This is both a dangerous and misguided understanding of autism.

The Autism Project seeks to reveal the reality of living with autism instead of the popular media myth.  To show this is a spectrum condition where even those who are deemed to be “severe” can have “normal” experiences.  It is a world where love, confusion and pain all intertwine on a daily basis and one where people adapt to survive.

The photos collated for the project are at this moment in time predominantly of my own family, with a few notable exceptions.  I am hoping to be able to convince more families to share their images over time.  It is important for the project that these are not staged images, with lighting and photographic direction.  These are spontaneous moments in the lives of those who inhabit a similar, but equally very different world to you.

The end hope for the project is that we will be able to fund an exhibition as well as its online presence.  Selected photos will also be collated for a book and I am currently working on a documentary film about autism.

Please click on the links to be taken to the site that hosts the project

 

 

SOCIAL NETWORKS

 

screenshots-together-of-site

 Social Networks is an internet based project that examines our relationship with social networks and how this affects ideas of privacy and authenticity.

Influenced by Jurgen Habermas’ ideas of the public and private spheres the project questions whether this is relevant in the twenty first century first world economy and whether there is now a new sphere where the two realms overlap: the virtual sphere.

The project also looks at issues of ownership and whether we really have the right to publish images featuring others without their informed consent, and what does it mean when people are unable to give it (as in the case on young children).

What responsibility do we have for our own data and are we sure we know who we’re talking to.

A deeper explanation of the work can be found at http://lovemakecreate.com/something-new-a-day-day-4-create-a-fake-social-network/

Hi

If you want to keep up to date with my work and projects then please sign up to my newsletter

Thank you